NOTE: Post your organization's or community's activities here. We suggest you confirm with organizers dates, times and locations before attending, to make sure the event is still happening. E-Mail your comments and the information you wish to have posted here. Contact us at turtleislandnativenetwork@gmail.com

NWAC’s National President Jeanette Corbiere-Lavell would like to encourage people of all Nations to attend an event in Ottawa on Victoria Island Friday May 20th from noon to 2 pm and support the Grandmothers who are walking across Turtle Island (North America) to raise awareness about the global water crisis.http://www.motherearthwaterwalk.com

Ottawa, ON (17 May 2011) – The Native Women’s Association of Canada is acknowledging with the highest esteem the Grandmothers and other supporters who are walking from the four oceans that surround North America. The leaders of the Water Walk carry copper vessels that contain the "healing and sacred salt water" from the Pacific Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic Ocean, and from Hudson Bay that will be used in a ceremony where the waters converge in Bad River, Wisconsin on June 12, 2011. The water will then be united in Lake Superior where the first Water Walk began in 2003.

Water is a life force that has been respected and honoured through ceremony since time immemorial by the world’s Indigenous peoples. With this respect it is of growing concern that many Indigenous people and others around the world do not have access clean drinking water.

The women in the Water Walk, many whom are Elders have taken on a physically daunting campaign journeying over 10,400,000 steps to raise awareness about the crisis. Like many great concerns it is the women who lead and give voice to the issue.

"The Anishinaabe, also known as the Ojibwe, Odawa and Potawatomi, are the caretakers of the eastern woodlands and Great Lakes, the largest freshwater system on Earth. Anishinaabe women, as givers-of-life, are responsible for speaking for, protecting and carrying our water." (Mother Earth Water Walk, 2011)

NWAC, NGO’s and government officials are listening and will respond. You too can support the walkers! For more information see http://www.motherearthwaterwalk.com/ and follow them on Facebook. To contribute,

"2011 Mother Earth Water Walk from Four Directions" Arrives in Ottawa Friday, May 20 - AFN National Chief to Meet Water Walkers at Victoria Island

OTTAWA, May 19, 2011

The 2011 Mother Earth Water Walk (east direction) will arrive at Victoria Island in Ottawa, ON on Friday May 20th. The Mother Earth Water Walk started on April 10 in Olympia, Washington (US). Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn A-in-chut Atleo will meet the walkers at Victoria Island, traditional territory of the Algonquin Nation.

The goal of the 2011 Mother Earth Water Walk is to raise awareness of the need to take care of the water and to help Mother Earth survive. It calls attention to the sacred gift of water, the source of all life. The Mother Earth Water Walk asks "What will you do for the water?"

The 2011 Mother Earth Water Walk unites all the waters of Mother Earth. Water was gathered from the four directions- from the Pacific Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic Ocean and Hudson Bay. It was gathered in copper pails and is being carried by Anishinawbe Grandmothers and women to its final destination on the shores of Lake Superior. As givers-of-life, these women are responsible for protecting and carrying that sacred water.

On June 11, the Anishinawbe Grandmothers, women and men, and youth from Canada and the United States will converge in Bad River, Wisconsin. The following day, the waters will merge in a ceremony on the shores of Lake Superior.

The Assembly of First Nations, Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg and other Indigenous organizations invite everyone who is concerned about the state of our water to come and support this event and participate in the water ceremony on Victoria Island.